San Francisco saw, like, two one-hundredths of an inch of rain early Thursday, so does that count as rain?
You may have woken up to wet front steps and back decks this morning and wondered what that was about, but it was just more of that marine layer spitting down some condensation on us. As the National Weather Services reports, there was a teeny, tiny amount of precipitation to moisten the grass and plants today, but not enough to clean the summer dust off things. Accumulation in SF was between 0.01 inches and 0.04 inches.
0.01" to 0.04" in drizzle to very light rain, reports are as of 1 am. To show full map San Francisco amounts difficult to read, SF amounts vary 0.01" to 0.04". As the marine layer deepens through morning expect more drizzle to very light rain, best chances coastside and bayside. pic.twitter.com/d7TJxndURQ
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) August 5, 2021
Weather service meteorologist Jeff Lorber tells the Chronicle that Oakland saw even less wetness, with less than one one-hundredth of an inch. But places like the Oakland and Berkeley hills might have seen a bit more.
"Air rushes up against the hills and as it rises, the cool air condenses and moisture falls down as precipitation," Lorber explained.
Meanwhile, we may start smelling smoke here later today or tomorrow — and it looks like the East Bay definitely will. Wildfire smoke from the Sierra and the Pacific Northwest is being pushed south along the coast, as shown in the model below. Yesterday the word was that it would mostly be noticeable in the North Bay, but the new weather service model suggests otherwise.
Wildfire smoke returns today into tomorrow.
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) August 5, 2021
Northerly winds in the wake of today's low pressure system will transport wildfire smoke from NW California into the region beginning today and more by tomorrow morning.
The gif shows forecast near-surface smoke. More is aloft. pic.twitter.com/6ArtYDBHLj
There's even more of the smoke aloft, the weather service says, but the animated gif above shows surface-level smoke over the next 24 hours.
Below, a satellite image showing the smoke coming down over Mendocino county.
Smoke is expected to drift southward into our vicinity today and tomorrow, but where's the edge of the smoke now?
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) August 5, 2021
Hint: look for the milky haze moving south near the border of Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino counties to find the smoke heading towards us. pic.twitter.com/V1NVMLztm1
And for a high-level perspective of our marine layer, here's an image taken today from the International Space Station as it passed over us.
Look at you! From 260 miles up via the @Space_Station a few minutes ago. It looks a little bit cloudy down there over #SanFrancisco - but still clear across much of #BayArea through to @TheCityofSac and Lake Tahoe. @NWSBayArea @NWSSacramento 1:06PM Aug,5 21 pic.twitter.com/INnLRHycVK
— ISS Above (@ISSAboveYou) August 5, 2021